Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Officials visit man-tiger conflict areas in Maharashtra

Nagpur, Dec 11 (IANS) A senior official of the tiger conservation authority is on a two-day visit to Maharashtra's Chandrapur district Dec 11-12, to study the prevailing situation here as five people were killed by a tiger in two months.

Rajesh Gopal, Project Tiger director, visited the Talodhi-Balapur forest range Tuesday morning, about 150 km from here, to study the prevailing situation and formulate a strategy to deal with the situation.

The predator also killed a number of cattle and wild boars in Brahmapuri and Chimur sub-divisions of the forest range.

Authorities killed a tiger Nov 30 on the boundary of the Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve for it turned into a man-eater. Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) B. Majumdar later denied that the department killed the animal under public pressure.

'The management of the non-protected areas adjoining tiger reserves is the main challenge today,' Gopal told IANS before leaving for his tour to central India.

He is expected to meet the PCCF and other forest officials to discuss the situation.Last Friday, a predator killed another villager. Villagers said it was the same tiger that killed five other people in the past.

After the incident, angry villagers attacked a forest range office to mount pressure on officials to take action. The villagers have now issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the officials to kill the tiger or else they would take the law into their own hands.

As many as 25 people were killed and 12 injured in tiger attacks in the last two years here. In the same period, 14 tigers were killed in human-animal conflict.